[tigerdriver]

My home is in the woods, surrounded by tall trees. To get a good look at 119 degrees, I hire a tree guy with a bucket truck to carve out an aperture. This is a BIG expense...now it seems that HD is moving back behind the trees (bummer).

So I want to confirm the following facts:

(1) After the new satelllites are up, no more HD on 119.

(1a) DirecTV is not planning to maintain both infrastructures so they can do a gradual phase-in/switchover.


(2) The new MPEG4 satellites will be at 99- and 103 degrees.

(2a) Is it necessary to receive both satellites? Or is one just for HD spotbeams?

(3) SD will still be at 119.

(4) The HD capabilities of my 10-250 will be obsolete because it doesn't do MPEG4.




Thanks

 

[Mark Lopez]

To get a good look at 119 degrees, I hire a tree guy with a bucket truck to carve out an aperture. This is a BIG expense...

Chain saw - small expense.

 

[dswallow]

Or you might consider a tower mount: http://www.solidsignal.com/cat_display.asp?main_cat=05&CAT=Antenna Towers

 

[JimSpence]

3) The core SD channels are on the 101 satellite.

4) The HR10 will still be able to record OTA HD along with SD.

There have been many threads here concerning these subjects.
I hope you've been reading them.

 

[bonscott87]

Yes, the new MPEG4 sats will be at 99 and 103. There are already the 1 in each slot.

DBSTalk will help with more info should you need it.

 

[tigerdriver]

Or you might consider a tower mount: http://www.solidsignal.com/cat_display.asp?main_cat=05&CAT=Antenna Towers

I wish. These trees are 60-70 feet tall and were planted on the south side of the property to provide shade. Five are planted at regular intervals about 20 feet apart, 20 feet from the house.

As these are oaks, perhaps I should mount the dish on the tree fairly low to the ground (6-8 ft), and just live with the small amount of wind-sway.

BTW, the dish pointer on DirecTV site calculates azimuth/elevation based (I suppose) on a satellite the satellite parked at 119 longitude. Is there a more general tool somewhere on the web; i.e., one that accepts satellite longitude as a variable?

 

[dswallow]

I wish. These trees are 60-70 feet tall and were planted on the south side of the property to provide shade. Five are planted at regular intervals about 20 feet apart, 20 feet from the house.

As these are oaks, perhaps I should mount the dish on the tree fairly low to the ground (6-8 ft), and just live with the small amount of wind-sway.

BTW, the dish pointer on DirecTV site calculates azimuth/elevation based (I suppose) on a satellite the satellite parked at 119 longitude. Is there a more general tool somewhere on the web; i.e., one that accepts satellite longitude as a variable?

If mounting the dish just 8 feet from the ground is sufficient for you, there's inexpensive towers that'd be more stable long-term. But actually I was referring to the 100' tower for you. That should work for some time.

A DirecTV multi-satellite dish is configured to be aimed at 110 degrees, so their caclulator is giving info for that. That comes from the fact DirecTV satellites were also at 101 and 119 degrees, exactly 9 degrees on either side of their 110 degree position.

A good third-party one that lets you select all the parameters yourself (which is useful if you were planning to try to combine individual dishes for each satellite position) is: http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Satellite-Heading-Calculator.htm

 

[stevel]

Also, keep in mind that the satellite is actually about 22 degrees higher in the sky than where the dish "appears" to be pointing due to the offset of the LNB. It was interesting when I was visiting Alaska to see so many satellite dishes apparently aimed directly at the horizon.

 

[bonscott87]

FYI that the 5 LNB dish is actually pointed directly at 101 and it's skew is rotated on the 101 axis.
The 3 LNB is pointed to 110 and skewed off that.

 

[bdlucas]

As these are oaks, perhaps I should mount the dish on the tree fairly low to the ground (6-8 ft), and just live with the small amount of wind-sway.

Sounds like you're talking about mounting it on the other side of the trees? Does it even need to be 6-8 ft above the ground? I mounted my dish at my last house at ground level using the top of a 4x4 held in the ground like a mailbox post as a base for the mount. WOrked fine, very easy to install.

 

[bonscott87]

I am a bit confused here, tiger, you have a good signal now for 101, 110 and 119?
If so then you shouldn't have any problem at all with the new sat since they are only a couple degrees either side of 101.
103 should be no problem at all since it's between 101 and 110.
99 would only be a problem if you have blockage right on the left edge of your line of sight to 101. I'm thinking if you're fine now you should be fine with the 5 LNB.

 

[Mark Lopez]

Also, keep in mind that the satellite is actually about 22 degrees higher in the sky than where the dish "appears" to be pointing due to the offset of the LNB.

True. I've posted this a few times before to show the effect. The signal actually comes from over the fence. You can even see the older single LNB dish post next to it that was even shorter.

I mounted my dish at my last house at ground level using the top of a 4x4 held in the ground like a mailbox post as a base for the mount. WOrked fine, very easy to install.

Personally I would not use wood. Wood will warp over time. A pole is just as easy and just as cheap. Just be sure to use an anti-rotation device (i.e. a bolt though the pipe)

 

[tigerdriver]

I am a bit confused here, tiger, you have a good signal now for 101, 110 and 119?
If so then you shouldn't have any problem at all with the new sat since they are only a couple degrees either side of 101.
103 should be no problem at all since it's between 101 and 110.
99 would only be a problem if you have blockage right on the left edge of your line of sight to 101. I'm thinking if you're fine now you should be fine with the 5 LNB.

I do indeed have good reception on all those satellites. Signal strength of 95 on all three. I had the tree guy widen the window substantially last month so I wouldn't need him again for a few years.

So, I'll just do the 5-LMB install and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Cabinwood]

A good third-party one that lets you select all the parameters yourself (which is useful if you were planning to try to combine individual dishes for each satellite position) is: http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Satellite-Heading-Calculator.htm

Doug, is there a way to combine the satellites on the new 5 lnb dish? I currently have two dishes, one for 101/110 and another for 119 and am combining them with a Sat C kit combiner. Is there a way to keep my separate 119 dish and combine it with the 5-lnb dish? I talked to an installer who was installing a dish at a neighbor's house and he had no idea you could even do what I'm doing, so I know they won't be of any help...

 

[dswallow]

Doug, is there a way to combine the satellites on the new 5 lnb dish? I currently have two dishes, one for 101/110 and another for 119 and am combining them with a Sat C kit combiner. Is there a way to keep my separate 119 dish and combine it with the 5-lnb dish? I talked to an installer who was installing a dish at a neighbor's house and he had no idea you could even do what I'm doing, so I know they won't be of any help...

Theoretically it can be done but you'd need a combiner that could notch out the intermediate frequencies 119 uses and replaces it with the intermediate frequencies from a different dish aimed at 119. The Ka-band frequencies from each satellite are combined above and below the regular intermediate frequencies used for 101/110/119, so you need to preserve them while replacing the regular frequency range that the 119 LNB will be using.

I don't think anyone makes something like that off-the-shelf. There's a chance you could tear apart a 5-LNB dish (probably a lot easier on the original 5-LNB versus the newer Slimline) and disconnect the internal 119 LNB and wire it to another dish's LNB for 119, but that'd be a real stretch, depending on how easy it is to figure out their internal circuit board.

 

[Cabinwood]

Theoretically it can be done but you'd need a combiner that could notch out the intermediate frequencies 119 uses and replaces it with the intermediate frequencies from a different dish aimed at 119. The Ka-band frequencies from each satellite are combined above and below the regular intermediate frequencies used for 101/110/119, so you need to preserve them while replacing the regular frequency range that the 119 LNB will be using.

I don't think anyone makes something like that off-the-shelf. There's a chance you could tear apart a 5-LNB dish (probably a lot easier on the original 5-LNB versus the newer Slimline) and disconnect the internal 119 LNB and wire it to another dish's LNB for 119, but that'd be a real stretch, depending on how easy it is to figure out their internal circuit board.

Ohhhh, that doesn't sound too likely then. I'm having problems finding the Sat C kit combiner now that I use with my triple dish. Solid Signal used to have them but said they aren't being made anymore. I bought a few Sat C kits on Ebay just so I had some backups of it.

I may be out of luck when I have to move to the new dish

 

[bonscott87]

See if you can find an AT9. It has the 110 and 119 off on the "side".

See this pic of mine: http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachment.php?attachmentid=17360&d=1183314607

On the right side is a dual LNB with two cables, one for 110 and one for 119. I can't see any reason why you couldn't have a separate 119 dish and run coax from it to the 119 port on the LNB. Not sure if that will work but worth a try.

Note there are 2 kinds of AT9's, one with regular coax connectors and the other has plug in types. You want the coax kind.

 

[Cabinwood]

Scott, does the AT9 work with the new HD locals? That's what I'm worried about. When they turn off the old HD feeds and we can only get the new feeds with the 5-lnb dish, I'm afraid I won't be able to get 119...

 

[bonscott87]

The AT9 is the 5LNB dish so yes.

There are 2 versions of the 5 LNB dish:
1) AT9 which has the "sidecar" as pictured above. This was the first one out while they worked on the Slimeline
2) Slimeline or AU9 which has all 5 LNBs built into one housing and is slightly smaller.

Either one gets all 5 sats.

 

[dswallow]

Scott, does the AT9 work with the new HD locals? That's what I'm worried about. When they turn off the old HD feeds and we can only get the new feeds with the 5-lnb dish, I'm afraid I won't be able to get 119...

Is there anything on 119 you need? Unless your locals come from there (and even then they'd only be your SD locals -- all your major network HD locals are on 99 or 103 in HD), you should be fine without it.

All the HD programming on 119 should be duplicated on 99 or 103 once the national/CONUS transponders go live.